How to Sell to the Rich - Part 1
If you haven’t figured out by now that without money you cannot be happy-stop reading this right now, because I’ll be wasting your time, and you’ll be wasting mine if you leave me a numbing and spiritually-trite comment.
But, if you have a truly original and revolutionary thought about how poverty or moderate poverty or even lower-middle class poverty can be more up-lifting and satisfying than possessing more money than Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, et al… please, share your thoughts.
If not, then don’t, because I don’t want to hear how money can’t buy happiness. Or how you don’t have to be rich to be happy. Or how money is the root of all evil, etc., etc.
I’ve heard it all, and once believed it all, and said so, too.
And yet, if you’re determined to bait my ire and fill cyberspace with rehashed blather-I suggest you first trade places with a homeless person for a week-and then tell me how happy you are to eat your meals from a restaurant dumpster, or sleep in a cardboard box in the freezing cold, or defecate in the street like a dog, and smell like one, too… or, how about you just can’t pay your mortgage and are about to lose your home, or you child needs an operation and you don’t have the money because your credit cards are maxed-out and your insurance provider won’t cover the expense.
Listen, everyone wants more-needs more-desires more-and more is wholly dependent on more money. This is not Gordon Gecko speaking here about how greed is good. Greed is a pejorative term. Wealth and the accumulation of wealth, on the other hand, is a basic, laudable and inalienable human desire.
Those who would disagree are typically those who tried but could not achieve and satisfy that desire, and are now without-and are now trying to convince others, and themselves, they’re better off for having failed or fallen short.
Unless you’re a tribesmen living in the forests of Borneo-you need money to be happy. Then again, the happiest Borneo tribesmen are probably the ones with the most goats or cows, or whatever has the highest fungible value within their society.
Furthermore, and more to the point, if you don’t believe everything I just said…
You ain’t ever going to be a successful marketer!
If you’re a marketer-online or off-and you don’t have the highest degree of ambition to sell the most you can and thereby make the most money you can… you’re going to fail miserably, and die poor-and not very happy.
So if you have no all-consuming ambition to succeed…then, right now, go out and get a 9-5er instead, watch TV at night, and live your life according to the maxim that ignorance is bliss.
Successful marketers need and thrive on high-octane ambition. Such ambition is the rarified fuel that drives and energizes them-and such ambition can only be sustained by a tenacious bull-doggedness-a never-say-die brand of commitment, dedication, and perseverance-that inevitably leads to a hell of a lot of hard work, sleepless nights and tested relationships.
All for the pride of achievement! Winning! And its natural consequence-living and retiring with more money than one can ever hope to spend!
So who cares if you can’t take it with you-you’re not supposed to. Whatever is left over in the kitty when your time comes… you’re supposed to give to your kids, your spouse, your siblings, charity, a neighbor-any person or institution who you’ve loved and or appreciated-and care to make happy in turn.
Sure, some people with the requisite ambition don’t make it all the way to the top-but that’s okay. At least they’re trying, or died trying. And in the end, if they honored their ambition with an ethical and moral effort, they’ll have no regrets-and a lot of great and noble memories.
And if they finish only half way up the mountain-they’re still far better off, and happier, than those slaving at the bottom in the muck and the mire.
If you think I’m denigrating the unfortunate and the less able in society-then you’re missing the point.
What is the point?
If you’re going to sell to the rich (yes, I’m following up on my previous post)- you first gotta want to be rich, filthy rich-just like them.
Why? How? Still more to come… so stay tuned.
–Barry
www.WritingWithPersonality.com
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April 15th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Nice Site layout for your blog. I am looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
April 17th, 2008 at 4:22 am
this could be the best post i found on internet for years now (and i read A LOT every day)! man, you really got the point here … straight to the root! without ambition the way you are writing about it, this world would be place with no meaning … and meaning IS growth and progress, even if we speak about sustainable ones! without burning soul all would be misery and despair …
April 17th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Really funny post. You’ve got my attention, that’s for sure! I’ve always said that money can’t buy happiness but it buys choices, which can buy happiness…
April 17th, 2008 at 9:13 am
One one paragraph that you made rings true: “So if you have no all-consuming ambition to succeed…”
All the talk about money being the measure of that everyone should use for success is a stretch.
Most of my family are teachers and they measure success by how many students they can reach and inspire… whether to graduate… or just to become excited about the possibilities in their lives. My sister is a fundraiser for a non profit and rubs elbows with the rich to raise money… to do that she needs confidence in her ability to reach her goals (and audience)… not money. My wife owns her own speech therapy practice and is focused on those without money or traditional access to speech therapy services (Medicaid). She is happy when she hears that her clients are removed from special ed and go strait to AP classes as their communication issues are addressed.
I am a in business and my business has grown 6 fold every year for the last 4 years. I would estimate that 90% of my customers are in the top 30% of the income bracket. I also happen to be the number one in sales for the two manufactures I work with.
I don’t see a difference in the happiness I have in my successes (with money) and the happiness others have in their own successes.
You ended by saying “you first gotta want to be rich, filthy rich-just like them.” … no … you just have to want success and have intelligence and confidence to know you can achieve it. Rich people don’t like dealing with losers, that I can agree with.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:14 am
I love your post, and there’s much truth to it. But I don’t believe you have to be filthy rich to be happy. It definitely is very important to be comfortable financially and have a secure income to be happy though.
The filthy rich often don’t always appreciate what they have because it is too easy for them to obtain it (mansion, yacht, fancy car, indoor pool…). The ’self-made’ rich will definitely appreciate more, but the ‘born-rich’ is the one who is usually thankless and ungrateful for his good fortune, and takes everything for granted.
I have a young eCommerce site that is struggling still, and I have to say that I am very much looking forward to your follow up posts on ‘how to sell to the rich’!
April 19th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Another motivational writer once said, “You must define your goals, write them down on paper. If you don’t know where you want to be, how will you get there.” So I “defined my goals” and the more I thought about it, the more “greedy” I saw them. Yes, I had a yearly salary goal. In my day job as a bookkeeper, I see many people making the kind of money I want to make with my art, but when I stopped to look at my goal, it just didn’t feel right — little ol’ me shouldn’t be making that kind of money. Your article has made me rethink this. I do deserve this! More than that, I can do it. You’ve filled in the other half of the equation for me to kick the negative thinking to the curb and leave it behind. Thank you and I can’t wait to read more.
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Let me take your “logic” to its obvious conclusion — if money brings happiness, then breathing, a pumping heart, food, and temperatures we can survive are all the ways to bring happiness. Seems kinda moronic to me, but hey, this is your logic, not mine. Sure we need money to buy necessities, and, if we are healthy enough and skilled enough (or can become skilled enough), it can also buy us stuff that we THINK can make us happy. In the same way, we also need oxygen, a working body, food, and a varying degree in temperatures that will not freeze us to death or heat us to death. Glad to have all of these things! Just not dumb enough to think they are where my happiness lies.
I could come up with a logic argument on what DOES bring happiness, but, according to how I’ve read what you written above, there is no point to it. You’re not really into logic, just making money. For that, I already have enough miliionaires (and a few billionaires) in the family that I know how to do the same, if I wanted to.
One problem, just because money is your concept of happiness, it isn’t mine. (OK, not my problem, and you couldn’t care less.)
Also, you apparently already know it all, since anyone telling you anything different is “numbing” your mind? Hate to burst your bubble (fortunately, I can’t, since you are in your own little world, so reality need never enter it), but your mind is already numb. I can learn more about becoming rich. I know enough to get there now, if I was interested. One thing for sure, can’t learn squat from someone who can’t learn squat from anyone else!!!
“Spirtual” enough for you?! Watch out! Lead balloon “flying” over.
April 25th, 2008 at 5:12 am
So to all you self proclaimed students and businessmen. Ever heard of Maslow, didn’t you all get so sick of studying Maslow theory of hierachy that you acutally just wanted to puke!!!
Althought this article has the makings of something great and believe me I’m off to read part 2, Maslow said that it’s all about needs and wants. If you can satisfy your needs (and this does not have to be money) you’ll be happy in life! If you want something, go get it, if you need something, it’s a different story. Paying off a mortgage is a need if you already have one, not being able to afford it, is a problem
Having said that, unless you have a want and unless you have a drive don’t bother reading the next article it’s not going to help.